Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKTS) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jeff Shealy: Thanks, Craig and this is Jeff. Let me add to that, that — all that cover Dave just gave that feedback, that marketing intelligence feedback into our product development, new product introduction cycle and so used to bring it kind of full circle where we were talking about kind of where our gross margins are going. We’re incorporating these lower cost packages in those solutions to help drive gross margin improvements in the company. So it kind of feeds full circle. Those performance improvements we’re also in capturing these new product packages in those to help on the gross margin improvement. I just wanted to add that to cover.

Craig Ellis: Yes. Thanks for taking on there, Jeff. My last question is a follow-up on issue that’s come up earlier in this call and in prior calls. It’s the Wi-Fi SoC tightness issue and I’m well aware that this isn’t an acoustic specific issue, but it’s one that impacts the broader Wi-Fi business. The question is this, as we’ve seen foundry supply in Asia, loosen meaningfully at almost all nodes except the very highest nodes and acknowledging that Wi Fi SoCs have very long lead time. So we’re not going to see a supply benefit immediately. But are you seeing any signs from the ecosystem that you’re interacting with that we could see better Wi-Fi SoC supply in the back half of this year? And if so, to what extent are those indications moving up if at all? Thanks, guys.

Jeff Shealy: Okay. Thanks. Dave, you want tackle that, your closes to the customer, what you’re hearing?

David Aichele: Yeah. So Craig on that, we are seeing a little bit of loosening on the — at least the major two SoC providers. It still is long lead items. There’s still inventories that are over there, the turns with the distribution market is still pretty high, both on the FEM and also on the passes, but also in the SoCs. But we are seeing in loosening one of the other providers is probably two-thirds of lead time of one of the others. So there is some attractiveness to chip to the Wi-Fi 7 platform as well because that is less constrained as well, depending on who the SoC is and what foundry that they’re operating in which node. So it is softening. It’s still is pretty long lead time and so forth and we do expect it to improve over the next six months to nine months.

That we’re keeping our finger on the pulse and making sure we — every platform we look at in our funnel, we look at who the chipset is, as well as the ramp scheduling program just so that we’re not being held on inventory levels and so forth over in Asia as well.

Craig Ellis: Got it. Thanks so much guys.

Jeff Shealy: Thank you, Craig.

David Aichele: Thanks, Craig.

Operator: And we have reached the end of the question-and0answer session now. I’ll turn it back over to management for closing remarks.

Jeff Shealy: Yes. I’d like to thank everyone for your time today and joining today’s call. We look forward to speaking with you during our next update call to discuss the current quarter execution against our milestones as well as future expectations. Have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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